Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara told CoinDesk, a New York based news site that south African market has a huge untapped potential.

VALR has partnered with Bittrex, an international cryptocurrency exchange, in the launch of VALR, which is a digital asset trading platform in South Africa. Reportedly, the trading platform has so listed 50 digital coins and is scheduled to start its operation today.

VALR investor Michael Jordaan of Montegray Capital also told CoinDesk that VALR’s support for 50 cryptocurrencies would offer the most diverse range of assets of any African exchange when it opens to the public today.

He further stated that, “The VALR team has the potential to change the cryptocurrency landscape in South Africa and globally,” Jordaan said.

The trading platform opened registrations in December 2018 and VALR co-founder and CEO Farzam Ehsani reveals that it already has 1,500 users, who are mostly South Africans. He further divuldged that the users already signed up on the exchange’s waiting list and started activating accounts ahead of today’s launch.

The VALR CEO is optimistic that the partnership with Bittrex will offer the new exchange global liquidity and competitive prices for crypto-to-crypto trading adding that VALR will work on activating fiat on-ramps with local banks.

“Companies are not allowed to go and buy large amounts of crypto from offshore markets. This makes it very difficult for crypto exchanges in South Africa to access liquidity from international markets,” Ehsani said adding that South Africans want their hands on a store of value that does not devalue.